The Bolo Stories of Keith Laumer and Ogre the Cybertank Wargame

It probably was destiny to eventually write some mecha fiction.  I grew up with Bolo and Ogre, so even without the Japanese mecha influence, the seeds were already there.  From the Japanese perspective, mechas are about humanoid fighting machines with hotshot/hot head pilots fighting against some evil threat.  From the western perspective they are robots who are efficient war machines that fight wars sometimes for justice/survival and sometime for more pragmatic reasons.  The Japanese believe everything has a spirit, but some of that is also found in the Bolos, but not so much for the Ogre!  I've tried to find synergy between these two influences in my Exocrisis stories, but here is a little article about the battlefield robots of my youth.

BOLO!
You have to love the name "Intercontinental Siege Unit," but that is what a large Bolo is capable of.  These enormous, sentient robot tanks were etched into the memory of a couple of generations of western SF fans in the form of print stories, by Keith Laumer, well before any movies or even the term "drone" was used for robot combat units in the 1970s.  Armed with Hellbore cannons, infinite repeaters, force shields, and thick armour, they have fought on numerous alien worlds to defend humanity.

The stories have held up pretty good with time and I still go back and reread them every so often.  In fact, other authors such as David Weber and many more have just added to the number of Bolo stories over the years.  You would think a stories about robot tanks would be boring as it is about a thinking robot who doesn't have romance, or personality conflicts, or all that human emotional baggage, but the stories are often about people involved with the robots, even if the Bolos are the centerpiece.  These robots act for the honour of the regiment, they are fiercely loyal to their human masters,even when discarded as junk, and they seem to be able to develop friendship with a human commander who is often their pilot.

The stories are now available as ebooks (such as "The Complete Bolo") which is great, as my old copy of Bolo is nicely yellowed now.  Hopefully a new generation of SF fans can enjoy these stories.  Make sure you get the original stories by Keith Laumer first, and not the later Bolo add-on stories to start.  A couple of my favourites are: Relic of War and Combat Unit, but they were all good.  If you've had too much about good, loyal robots then it is time to read the Berserker series by Saberhagen to get some bad robots afterwards.

Ogre, the Wargame
Ogre was Microgame #1 from Metagaming in the 1970s which is now gone.  However, the designer, Steve Jackson bought up the rights and is still producing the game.  I have like a second edition of the game and it is a simple introduction of wargaming with map and cardboard counters.  The game has one player taking the role of an enormous cybernetic tank, while the other player commands a force of conventional armour, infantry, and artillery to stop it.  The game design on this and the followup game GEV are just classic and I doubt it will ever go out of style.

The Ogres were probably influenced by the Bolo stories, especially for the initial artwork, but they are really their own original invention.  It is a niche wargaming franchise with loyal fans, but I don't think many people have heard of it in the last fifteen years or so.  There were multiple expansions for the game, and even miniatures and a crazy Kickstarter to build a giant Ogre Deluxe Box.  I was interested in the edition, but only wanted a box with plastic miniatures, not 3D cardboard standups.  Definitely check out the artist's website below for the original Ogre art.

• Designer's notes to the Ogre wargame
• J.D. Bell's GEV short story at Steve Jackson Games
• The original artist's website.  http://www.projectrho.com/ogre.html
• http://www.examiner.com/review/retro-board-game-review-the-world-of-steve-jackson-s-ogre-and-g-e-v
• http://www.goingfaster.com/ogre/background.html

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